Vacant Pleads Guilty to Shooting K-9 Officer, Faces Decades in Prison

Jun. 16—After pleading early this month to willfully harming a police officer's dog, a 52-year-old Vacaville man charged with the January shooting and wounding of a Vacaville K-9 officer will face a "placement hearing" Tuesday in Solano County Superior Court.

During the 8:30 a.m. hearing in Department 25 in Fairfield, Darren Ronald Crail likely will learn that he will be placed Diablo Valley Ranch in Contra Costa County. A private nonprofit organization in Clayton, its offers inpatient treatment for substance abuse disorders, anger management, and cognitive behavioral therapy, among other things, according to the DVR website.

When a bed becomes available there, he will be transported by a Vacaville Police Department case worker or a DVR employee, according to court records. While there, Crail will be granted pretrial services and released with a GPS monitor.

Crail pleaded no contest on June 5 to harming K-9 Murph, a Dutch Shepherd. While he did not admit guilt, he essentially stated he would offer no defense, and Judge Janice M. Williams immediately found him guilty.

During a June 12 hearing about a pretrial services report, she dismissed several felony allegations: illegally possessing an assault weapon, carrying a loaded firearm in public under specific circumstances, discharging the weapon, and resisting arrest. Williams also dismissed the charge of making annoying calls to 911, a misdemeanor.

During the Thursday hearing, Crail was represented by Deputy Public Defender Pamela Boskin. Deputy District Attorney Gerald J. Hall represented the DA's Office.

At one point after his arrest and arraignment in January, Crail was considered for military diversion intake but the outcome is unclear with his scheduled attendance in the DVR program.

A military diversion intake hearing is a meeting with a judge to determine if a veteran or active-duty military servicemember is eligible for a pretrial diversion program. They are designed to help veterans avoid conviction and get treatment for medical or mental conditions that may have arisen from their military service.

As previously reported, an attorney for Crail on Jan. 28 submitted a request that he be allowed to participate in mental health diversion, which he consented to, court records show.

In her request to Williams, Deputy Public Defender Sormeh Yasaie noted Crail, a U.S. Army veteran with no prior criminal history, was eligible for the diversion, in accord with a Penal Code statute. Additionally, Yasaie, in her pretrial mental health diversion application, asserted that Crail, based on an unidentified mental health expert's opinion, was "not an unreasonable risk of danger to the public."

However, in his Jan. 29 opposition filing, Deputy DA Hall indicated that while Crail may be eligible for pretrial diversion the attorney questioned whether he was "suitable" for it.

During the arraignment, Crail's defense attorney at the time, Deputy Public Defender Mardin Malik, asked Judge Marlo S. Nisperos to release him on bail.

Denying the motion, she cited court records and "underlying facts" that he had "threatened himself and neighbors" on Jan. 15, the day he was arrested on suspicion of the shooting, which occurred after police arrived at a residence in the 300 block of Regency Circle in Vacaville.

Vacaville police Lt. Chris Lechuga, the department's public information officer, told The Reporter a veterinarian performed K-9 Murph's amputation during surgery at the University of California, Davis, veterinary hospital. Murph, a 4-year-old male K-9, returned to his handler's home afterward.

Police interactions with Crail actually began Jan. 14, said Lechuga, who also is a patrol watch commander.

Crail had called police dispatch initially threatening to harm himself. Officers contacted him but he declined all resources and various services offered to him, Lechuga added.

The incident escalated after Crail called a department dispatcher, threatening to shoot members of the community. Police SWAT and crisis negotiators responded to the residence and attempted to get Crail to leave the home peacefully, Lechuga said.

K-9 Murph responded to the residence with his handler and several announcements were made to have Crail exit his home. Lechuga said that when Crail finally exited the front door, he was armed with a rifle and refused to surrender peacefully.

When K-9 Murph attempted to take Crail into custody, he fired at least one rifle round, striking the dog in the leg. Officers rushed the dog to the UC Davis hospital.

The DA's Office filed its criminal complaint on Jan. 17.

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